THEchallenge

New membership affected by educational debt

Sister Michele Vincent Fisher, C.S.F.N., a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth and current NFCRV Board Member, describes how the educational debt of prospective candidates has had a negative impact on her community's vocation recruitment efforts.

2012 study on educational debt's impact on religious vocations

In early 2012 the NRVC released Educational Debt and Vocations to Religious Life, a national study done in collaboration with the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). The purpose of the study was to provide data to support the anecdotal evidence that rising educational debt is impeding vocations to the religious life. The research confirmed that student loans are discouraging, if not preventing, college graduates from pursuing a call to vowed life.